Letters: Tribal rivalry

We hear much speculation about a possible arrangement between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and on the alternative if that fails of one involving Labour and the Lib Dems.

But I have heard no mention of a Conservative-Labour pact. There is obviously a reason for this, but I'm not sure the reason is the obvious one.

One might expect each party to be looking for the deal which involves minimum deviation from it's own manifesto. Many would assume the widest policy gulf is that between the Conservatives and Labour. But in fact each of these parties has reinvented itself after a succession of defeats in recent decades and both now fight for the same middle ground. The Lib Dems, at least in terms of their stated policies, are far from being in the centre.

There remains, however, a legacy of the Labour and the Conservative parties each seeing the other as its principle rival for power and of each defining and justifying its own position with reference to a demonised image of the other. They may feel the need to maintain the illusion of substantial difference to preserve the loyalties of their traditional and tribal support bases.

Perhaps we now find ourselves in a situation where the need to engage effectively with reality suggests a letting go of illusions.

JG RISELEY

Harcourt Drive

Harrogate, North Yorkshire